Round 2

[Burple_X]

OK the mysterious on again, off again signal lights haven't acted up again, nor has the Service Engine idiot light come on again.

BUT...

This morning, on the way to work, I looked down at the instruments and the tach is stuck at 4k rpms, the speedo is stuck at 20mph and the right turn indicator light is on.  The signals work, but indicators on the dash do not, other than the right side indicator being stuck ON.  The odometer, gas guage, and temp gauge are also out.  And the emergency flasher don't work at all. 

This is getting annoying 

[talon]

I seem to remember reading about somebody else having something similar happen. There is a reset procedure for the dash panel that fixed it. Might want to give it a shot.

[Burple_X]

Well, I called LoD yesterday and talked to Charlie.  He's their Lotus tech and actually drives a Lotus himself.  He, in turn, called Mike Fisher... the district rep for Lotus.  Mike said they were aware of the problem.  It is a software issue on the early manufacture instrument pods.  They are working on the problem and should have an update soon.  In the mean time, unhook the battery and let the ECUs hard boot. 

I tried this last night.  It fixed the stuck gauges and returned my odo, temp and fuel gauges, BUT now my friggin' signal lights are out again    I didn't find that out until I went to turn in the post office this morning.  I think I am going to install a RESET button on the dash so I can reboot at every stoplight until I get the desired portion of the ECU working.  Short of that, it's gonne be the BFH 

[S4 Esprit]

You bought a Lotus...be glad it starts.   

[talon]

hell - you have worse electrical gremlins than my Esprit!   

[Y2K SILVER BULLET]

I say just give the dash a big ole smack.   What's the old saying if you hit it and it doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

[Burple_X]

Trust me Steve, this morning it came real damn close to meeting my BFH.  The dash going out probably won't cause me to get a ticket.. I just drive slow.  But when the friggin' signals stop working, well... that's an open invitation to stop me and see what they can find wrong.

[BobsElise]

This the the kind of story that made me afraid to buy a Lotus.  Ironically, after 34k miles the only significant problem I have had was related to a Toyota part.

[Burple_X]

From talking to the tech at LoD, apparently they made some significant changes between '07 and '08.  I owned a first year new generation (C6) Corvette prior to the Lotus.  I had the same issues.  And GM gave me the same run around.  Actually Lotus has not run me around (yet).  They owned up to the problem unlike GM, who denies until there is catastrophic failure.  As long as there is a fix coming (soon), I'm OK.  It's just annoying to buy a brand new car and spend this much money and have issues.   

[MikeW]

Well... I may have the same bug.  Today it was such I nice day (and my birthday) I decided to drive mine to work and on the on ramp to I40 the dash turned off. The blinkrs and lights worked all the lights turned off except the gas low light. No tac no speed!  Only 1,000 miles I had meetings today so no time to call Lotus.  I drove home and no issues.  Strange.....

Any thoughts would be great!

[talon]

Sorry to hear that Mike. You too may need a BFH


Happy belated bday!

[Burple_X]

Well... I may have the same bug.  Today it was such I nice day (and my birthday) I decided to drive mine to work and on the on ramp to I40 the dash turned off. The blinkrs and lights worked all the lights turned off except the gas low light. No tac no speed!  Only 1,000 miles I had meetings today so no time to call Lotus.  I drove home and no issues.  Strange.....

Any thoughts would be great!

I talked to Lotus last week, Mike.  It's a software issue and they are aware of it.  You can reset your instrument pod by disconnecting the battery for a few moments.  When you hook it back up, it will reboot the system and you'll have your dash back.  BUT, they told me it was just an issue on the early 2008 cars.  I guess you just busted that tale!  Anyway, ever since I reset mine, it has worked fine.

I do, however, have another issue with the car that (since you have the first, you'll probably  have the second too) causes the signal lights to stop working.  It has something to do with the emergency flasher switch.  When my turn signals go out, I can hold down the emergency flasher switch and the turn signals will work.  The emergency flasher switch won't stay off (or on or whatever it is doing), so you have to hold it.  I finally got pissed and whacked it pretty hard so now everything works.  I'm not brave enough to try the emergency flashers to see if the problems starts back.  My car is due for service so I'll probably be making a trip to Durham soon.  I'll let you know if I find out anything else. 

Oh yeah, Happy Birthday! 

[MikeW]

Thanks for the update.  Once I turned off the car and turned it back off everything is back up an running.  I drove it a while last night and seems to be all ok.  Trying now to determine if it is worth the trip to Durham now or wait until it does it again or normal servicing if it holds off.  I think I will drive it more than I planned  to test it out a bit more. 

Thanks.

Mike.
 

[talon]

excellent plan!

[Burple_X]

From what they told me, taking it back won't do you any good.  They will just unhook the battery and reset everything for you, as there is no fix yet.  I went through some similar issues with GM when I bought a first year new generation Corvette.  Cool thing was, the fix hit the forums before GM released it to their dealers.  I burned the ISO to CD and loaded it through the CD player.  A couple weeks later, my local Chevy dealer called me to borrow my CD.